Into the Nightmare
by AMAllen
Summary: Features several pairings, wartime hogwarts, reincarnation, prophecies & several deaths! this is my ending to the series for DHrships not a two days & now i love you romance REPOSTED
1. Shattered Memory

Short Chapter, will get longer. Still looking for Beta! I've used the books/HP Lexicon/ComicRelief books to do research...I tried for as close as possible for a realistic end to the series. Anything you don't recognize is mine (characters/place descriptions/orginal horcruxeslocations and things/plot) Just ask if you want to use anything! I love this pairing, there are several minor ones dipicted as well. I'm plotted out the story for the most part...look forward to plenty of character deaths, crazy characters, and a more realistic romance...I've yet to decide on an ending though, I might post both that I have in mind but I probably just choose based on reviews and such! Thanks for checking out this story, I hope you read on and please R&R! amallen

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Musty, smoky air in a room lit by wavering candles and incensed fires, and amid a circle of pillows a blue veil begins to rise as a mystical beat blossoms in the heavy atmosphere. From the black ceiling, a glint of silver, as a delicate cage floats to the ground and inside it, a pile of beautiful cloth.

The silver cage comes to rest and the audience seated on soft pale pillows begins to stir questioningly. The beat ends abruptly and a soft shimmering pipe takes over. From the pile of cloth a woman emerges as a phoenix from her ash of blue. A death-still hush befalls the crowd as they watch, mesmerized. This is a crowd of men, all mirror images of each other, dressed in black with black masks hiding their entire head.

The lady began to rise and every eye followed; entranced. Clad in a belt of robin blue, a mist-like skirt adorned from hip to thigh in an intricate silver belt of a Celtic style. Her feet were bare and her chest was crisscrossed with silver-blue ribbons of varying widths. From her back flowed a cloak of blue gauze held on my silver circlets appearing at her upper arm, elbow, wrist and ending with a ring placed on each middle finger. Her silver gold-flecked hair was heaped up in curls and detailed braids massed about her head and held in place by an array of ornaments, most prominent of all were five long simple pins, each ending in a perfect pearl and thrust in a star forming halo framing her soft features. Pale porcelain skin with delicate lips, but most startling and riveting of all were the intensity of her eyes. Silver rimmed, midnight blue extending from cornflower blue to jet black of her pupil. Eyes of the ocean . . . eyes of ice.

Slowly she began a dance she didn't know how to do and yet she performed it. In a place she had never seen and in a gown she had never worn yet her body flowed forth. Her mind panicked and struggled but the tranquility sedated her and inflamed her natural curiosity.

Soon she was flanked by two other feminine forms clad less intricately in white. Both had hair black as night, one with eyes of striking violet and the other, deep intriguing green. The others mimicked her movements for a while, then each broke off as the drums began to beat separately. Each step was perfectly executed. Violet eyes began furiously twisting and turning, dabbing each man's forehead with a piece of soaked silk before any of them could blink. Golden green eyes wrote shimmering runes in the air with her dance, and all the while muttering half-crazed to herself.

The lady in blue leaped and twisted and stepped in a delicate tune all her own. All three suddenly broke off and raced to the center of the room where three red vials appeared. The girls downed the vials in one fluid motion and then collapsed, music dying. Slowly each man began to waver and then disappear along with his pillow in a quiet 'pop'.

Many 'pops' later, only six men in black remained. Hidden beneath, now pure white masks, they rose up and walked toward the trio. The lady in blue floated to her feet, eyes shot white and pulsating with raw energy. Closing her eyes, she allowed this energy to flow into the two other girls, rather forcing it into them. They slowly rose, eyes mirroring hers. The beat furiously returned and each girl began her dance anew, with two male partners. Bending and gliding, twisting and flowing. Raw energy sizzled around the room, once in while sending of a streak of lightening to damage the walls.

Slowly another three men vanished, along with each remaining mask and cloak. This left one blonde man wearing an outfit of true black and the two other men in outfits of wispy grey. The couples stopped dancing and began to circle their opposites, communicating challenges, answering, defeating and winning in an exhausting pace. More vials, this time green, appeared.

Drinking these, the pace slowed, then stopped all together. The other couples sank to the ground, eyes showing relief, pride and love. They were almost done. All but one. Her partner stared in dawning horror and she meekly smiled, releasing a tear . . . a single blood red tear. Then, as if a dam collapsed, a flow of blood from every available opening; eyes, nose, mouth, ears and nail beds. The lady in blue, now stained red, wasted away before their very eyes. They were so shocked, unable to move or help. If there was any help to be had. The lady collapsed into her bond's arms. A scream of raging grief stole into the night and the dream shattered into a million diamond sharp pieces.


	2. War Torn World

Hermione Granger fell with a thud to her hardwood bedroom floor, tangled in her blue cotton sheets, after awaking from her dream. Pulling her now tamed brunette ringlets from her face she glanced up at the clock on her white bedside table. 8:47 am! That finally pulled her from her sleepy haze! Dashing about after making her bed she grabbed her much deliberated-over outfit of flat knee length, dark green suede boots overtop of faded slim-cut jeans, to compliment her 5'6' figure. A simple, long fitted white tee shirt completed it. After returning at the end of sixth year her mother had taken her on a, as she termed it, much needed rejuvenation weekend. This included, mother-daughter facials, massages and plenty of shopping.

This had been an almost last ditch effort to close the colossal gap between mother and daughter. After finding out she was a witch, her relationship with her parents was strained at best. They couldn't understand the wizarding world being muggles and the harder they tried, the more ridiculous the attempts became. Just going to Diagon Alley was an awkward situation because of their backwardness with her world. Introducing them to the Weasleys had been an experience she never wanted to repeat. Her dad eyeing them like something under a microscope.

Before Hogwarts, she was being groomed to take-over the family practice, that had all changed the day she got her letter. To this day she would get the feeling that they expected her to return to the muggle world once her schooling was done, and how could she tell him that being a witch was more important to her than dentistry? They would never understand, and so she spent more and more time in the magical world and the distance between them grew and grew. It was unfortunate but unavoidable. They hid her abilities from everyone and, being conservative small villagers, this was no easy feat! Her wand was not to leave her room, and the covers of her books had to be 'covered' to hide the magical aspects. At the Dursley's, Harry had it much worse, she didn't have bars on her windows, and so she never complained, just worked hard to keep in touch with her world. Owls sent only at night, stories of friends and classes at her "elite" boarding school, the list went on and on.

She had to give them credit though, they were just trying to support her different qualities and survive small town life. This was their way, and they always would be her parents, but she'd sooner gnaw her right arm off at the shoulder than be shut out of her world. So, she accepted their attempts at understanding and bonding with grace and answered all their questions, and in return she complained of her biology Professor to her Aunt and the newest political policies with her Grandfather.

Ever since her parents dental practice really took off, to become the number one practice in her hometown and for a few villages around, her parents had money to burn. So, no one questioned her special schooling. Her mom, despite being the workaholic that she was, still took time out when Hermione was home, which was few and far between, to put her oddly good fashion sense to use. Most of which, Hermione has inherited surprisingly enough.

Hermione rushed downstairs her trunk in hand with Crookshanks in his carrying case. Her parents were away at a dentistry conference this weekend (where they were guests of honor, Hermione proudly noted). They wouldn't be home until September second, thankfully. Her mother, being the thoughtful and organized person she was, had ironed her uniform and laid it out for her beside her taxi fare, emergency muggle money and a note saying her supply money was in her Gringotts account with some extra "for a treat or two". Laughing to herself Hermione scooped it all into her purse. 'Really Mum, ironing it? Being a witch has it's uses' she thought. With that she laid it inside her trunk and walked out the front door. After locking it, a kindly taxi driver would have helped her load the trunk, but there was no taxi to be seen. 'So much for on time' she though and settled herself onto her trunk for the wait.

An Hour Later

Getting really impatient and thankful that her street was deserted at noon on a Monday she stuck out her wand hand to summon the Knight's Bus and thought hard about needing transportation. She had read about it in some book or another and had always wanted to try it since Harry had described it to her.

Five Minutes Later

"Argh! This is absolutely ridiculous!" spat Hermione, twisting her face into a look of utter frustration, she turned to go back into the house and call the taxi again when a thud sounded behind her.

"Hullo Miss! Have you been callin' us? I am Stanley Shunpike and I will be your conductor! The Knight's Bus at your service in aid of any stranded witch or wizard!" cheerily shouted a still pimply faced boy in a purple uniform. "Sorry it took so long, we were over by Yorkshire...Say! Need help with that?"

Breathing a sigh of relief as she turned and glanced at the beat up, violently purple triple decker with its sign announcing 'All Destinations! (Nothing Underwater)'. She replied " Yea, I've been waiting and can you get my trunk?"

"Where are you off to?" he questioned.

"Diagon Alley." She curtly responded.

"Ah, Ernie! Another from Hogwarts!" he exclaimed over his shoulder to the driver. He turned to face Hermione and announced "That'll be 12 sickles, but for 14 you get a sandwich."

Hermione dug into her wizard money left over from the recent school year, thankfully produced the 12 sickles and boarded the bus.

Inside she found a witch with large glasses clutching her chair in a death grip, her eyes scrunched closed. Further down was a sorry looking wizard who seem quite ready to be ill, gazing out the window in an almost pleading fashion. Deciding to keep her clothes as clean as possible, she sat in the back on an overstuffed royal blue chair. She had just sat down when they were off again in a flash.

Trying to concentrate on anything but the near accidents, rocking of the bus, and thinking that Ernie was never going to make that turn, she pondered her dream.

It had started out normally, her trying to make a spell work. Then there was the flash and the deep voice saying "It's time...". Time for what? Suddenly she was in her body, yet observing the scene outside it. She was Blonde! Part of some ritual, for her nearly infinite knowledge, she didn't have the foggiest what this ritual was or what it accomplished. The dancing and the eerie drum beat coupled with the haunting pipe still gave her goose bumps and the shivers.

She was thrown back in her chair as the bus screeched to a stop in front of a little cottage and the sick witch just ran off onto the ground, then they were off again.

"Have a Good Day Madame Marsh!" Stan shouted after her.

Starting to feel slightly sick she fixed her gaze on a single spot on the back of a brilliant purple chair in front of her. The bus swayed from side to side and she dug her fingers into the arms of her chair and squeezed her eyes shut.

'I'm alright, Harry survived this trip and so can I!' she thought fiercely to herself 'Come on Granger, you're made of sterner stuff than this! Think of something else... anything else... They'll announce Heads this year! Yes, that's it! I'll finally be Head Girl... I hope! That's something Mum and Dad can understand! I wonder who'll turn up this year, what with The War. I wish I could've spent this summer with Harry and Ron at Grimmauld Place...Mum and I certainly had quite the row about that, but she doesn't want her only daughter running off to fight in some secret war.' Then she sighed 'I could've done such good work though! I bet Harry won't even be allowed to go on the train to Hogwarts, he'll arrive with an army of Aurors or something of that sort and if Harry doesn't ride the train, Ron certainly will follow wherever he'll go... Oh well, more fun for Ginny and I! If I worry, it won't do a thing but weaken me...must remember that!' Her train of thought was interrupted by a screech of brakes and a flash of light.

"What the...!" shouted Ernie, the driver.

"Crucio." oozed a deep voice. Ernie screamed and it was so chilling, even she felt frozen.

"Ernie!" Shouted Stan, the pimply conductor "Stupe-"

"Imperio" croaked another voice. Hermione slowly moved from her chair to crouch on the floor, hidden by the chair in front of her. Her pulse beat rapidly in her chest and she felt all the color drain from her face. As she slid down she saw the people who boarded the bus. Death Eaters. She clutched her wand in one hand and peered under the chair to the front.

"Who has ridden this bus?" asked the croaky voice.

Stan answered in a faraway choked tone "Maggie Perkiss...Willy Widdershins...Virja...Madame Marsh...Hermione Granger..."

"Wait!" barked another voice. "The mudblood girlfriend of the Potter-boy is **here**?"

Stan choked "Ye_s_..."

"Thi_s_ could b_e_ good..." slithered a female voice "Grang_e_...here Grang_e_...come out to play..."

"Elis, go amuse yourself, but we do have a task to accomplish, just don't kill her yet" instructed the croaky voice.

"Ye_s_, no kill_e_...Grang_e_ come play..." called Elis "Shallow cut_s_...yes ye_s_...tickle the _s_kin." Hermione's blood ran cold as the voice neared.

"Who else is here?" prodded the croaky voice.

Stan groaned "Micail Lunrick..." That seemed to please the Death Eaters and excite Elis.

"Oh! The Lunrick, Voldie will be so plea_s_ed!" whooped Elis.

"Remind me Lucius, why we had to bring her?" asked the croaky voice.

"Because Avery, The Dark Lord knows that even in her madness, Galara Elis is a most brilliant trueblood." answered Lucius "Now roundup all witnesses before you shoot off your mouth even more."

'Lucius?' thought Hermione, 'He's in Azkaban! If he really is here...the Dementors must've joined with Voldemort!'

"My pleasure..." crooned Avery as Galara giggled and he announced "I don't know who is more mad... Galara or Bellatrix."

"Avery!" barked Lucius "Do not second guess The Dark Lord's judgement, for this I'm sure you'll be punished."

"Yeah, just like you after your boy failed him? How is the voice doing by the way?" Avery asked, snickering to himself, "I have heard that the Cruciatus does quite a number on the vocals!"

"That is none of your affair!" spoke Lucius in a low threatening tone, "And if you know what is good for you, you will not provoke me!"

Elis came upon the sick looking wizard, trying to hide deeper in his chair. "The Lunrick-oh! Where could you go? Neve_r_ hide, or neve_r_ _s_peak for darkne_ss_ neve_r_ _s_leep_s_!" she sang, then laughed.

Lucius spoke first. "Galara, il vous regarde."

Galara stiffened and in a cruel frozen voice she said "Avada Kedavra." Then she turned and walked away leaving Lunrick just lying in his chair.

Hermione choked back a cry and felt a tear escape down her cheek. She couldn't let them get her. 'What can I do...' she thought. Peering under the chair again, she brought up her wand next to her face. "Petrificus Totalus" she whispered and saw Avery go down "Petrificus Totalus! Petrificus Totalus! PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" Then she jumped up to face Galara, "Stupefy!"

"Expelliarmus!" shouted Galara "Silencio. Accio Wand! Locomotor Cage! Portus!" Then she grabbed Hermione. Fear filled Hermione as she tried to fight back. She grabbed Galara's hand and bit down. Galara snarled "Get offa me you!" She grabbed the cage and slung Hermione under one arm. "Shhh! Don't make me Body-Bind you _s_nippet!" she stated and touched the trunk. The now-familiar feeling of a hook lodging itself behind her navel took over. Hermione in a state of absolute panic starts to struggle even more.

They arrive at a shabby dark room and Galara throws Hermione away from her. "_S_it girl, I don't have much time. You have much ahead of you! _S_o much pain..._s_o much death...don't let the Dark ones get their hand_s_ on you or you'll end up like me. A poppet. Mind destroyed so they can't have it...the secret. You can't let them win. I shouldn't have let it get this far! Oh old _s_oul...cruel fate has hold of th_ee_..." she trails off then her eyes focus on Hermione "He's coming and he's mad...Hurry Hurry! Away Away! Mustn't let him see! In your dreams they will come to you, trust and don't trust... love and don't love... that mink will betray you! Unity unity all... Friends close but your enemies are closer...Granger GO! I must return to him...the horrible things I must do, the things I see! Don't let him get a weight to hang over you...I loved once...lived once..." she started to cry "I TOLD YOU TO GO!" then she pushed the cage onto her with her wand and said "Portus trunk... Remember all that I have said... and say nothing for even light ones lie in dark." With that she shoved her onto the trunk and Hermione was portkey-ed away to the main foyer of the Leaky Cauldron as Elis sang " Jack and Jill ran up the hill to fetch a pail of water, Jack fell down and broke..."


	3. Deserted Diagon

Chapter 2

Dazed and more than a little confused a shaking Hermione got up and checked in, pondering what had just happened. She decided not to tell anyone just yet, because since the death of Dumbledore the lines of light and dark had become even more blurred.

Exhausted she collapsed onto her single bed after letting Crookshanks out of his cage to explore and calm down. Soon, she fell into a troubled sleep.

2 Hours Later

A streak of red bounced onto Hermione disturbing her sleep and she screamed.

"Bullocks! I didn't know what to think when I couldn't find you Hermione!" taunted a laughing Ginny "You deserve a little scare you sleepy-head!"

"Ginny...that's not fair! I honestly forgot and I'm really sorry..."answered a shamefaced Hermione, she never forgot anything.

"Alright! Well it is only just 3 yet...But I brought butterbeer up...We need to talk I think! So? How was your summer?" asked a good humored Ginny popping open a two bottles. "By the way...love the outfit, but I think it looked better before you slept in it."

"Ha, ha, aren't you quick witted." laughed Hermione "My summer was a little dull, I wished I was at Grimmauld Place...but my mom and I got to really spend some time together...I even got a new wardrobe so I did have fun. What about yours? How are the guys?"

"Ron was just Ron, only as moody as a woman all summer,"answered Ginny. " Harry is depressed, had more nightmares, Mum finally had to torch all the Daily Prophets after she read them at breakfast because otherwise he would nearly make himself sick with worrying about everything. I did get some quidditch practice in, but Mum and Dad were horribly busy all the time and Ron and Harry got to practice to be aurors since they're part of the Order and I'm not."

"Ginny, has anything terribly important happened? My mum canceled our subscription..." probed Hermione.

"To be honest, I don't really know...I couldn't read anything and I wasn't allowed out of Headquarters all summer because it wasn't safe." recalled Ginny. "We even have Tonks waiting outside to go with us shopping so we can get our uniforms and the boys'...I've never seen the Wizarding World like this 'Mione, wait until you see." Then she bounced up and said "Come on, might as well get started now so we can get to Headquarters for supper, Harry and Ron have been frantic about you! Harry can't risk Hedwig anymore...poor owls, every time I tried to send anything they always come back so beaten up."

"I know, it's a wonder I got your letter at all!" mused Hermione. "What about the supply letters? I was worried when I never got one." As they exited the room and started down the stairs to meet the Auror.

"Families have been going into hiding left and right, I don't know who will even show up this year...McGonagall is getting the letters hand delivered. Mum told her that you were coming with us so she didn't have to bother, safer for your parents that way. She wants wizarding families to send their kids to Hogwarts because, right now, it is a hell of a lot safer than anywhere else. Dumbledore himself warded that castle and Flitwick has cast a Fidelius Charm on the whole place, but no one knows who the secret-keeper is. Not even Harry, I asked."

"Wow..." commented Hermione. "If Hogwarts is the safest place, I wish my mum could know it."

"Your mum does know it if she sent you back here!" greeted Tonks. "Hullo Hermione!"

"Hi Tonks, how was your summer?" asked Hermione. Eyeing Tonks' black hair and pointed nose.

"Full of dark wizards." answered Tonks knowingly nose waving up and down. "Lets go!"

They exited the Leaky Cauldron onto Diagon Alley after passing through the brick wall.

The Alley was oddly quiet, people rushed around in huddled groups, and no one walked leisurely alone.

"Odd isn't it?" questioned Ginny.

"It's so...nervous, like everyone is waiting for something..." answered Hermione.

"Yes, they're all waiting for Death Eaters to pop up. They're everywhere these days, Dark Mark's in the air almost as much as the clouds are...depressing really." commented Tonks.

They continued along in abnormal silence until Tonks handed Hermione her forgotten supply money. "When you didn't show up on time, I went to Gringotts' to see if you had withdrawn anything...good thing your parents gave us a spare key to your vault eh?" Tonks added.

"Thanks...where to first?" asked Hermione.

"Flourish and Blotts...we need a lot of texts this year." replied Ginny.

"Actually, I already got these Ginny, McGonagall thought this should be short." cut in Tonks.

"So what do we need still?" asked Hermione.

"Your robes, and Ginny's. Mrs. Weasley purchased Harry and Ron's yesterday." answered Tonks.

"But I thought..."Ginny started.

"Well, you can't know everything in times of war right? Right." snapped Tonks.

"Umm...are you okay?" prodded Hermione. "You seem...severely...off."

"Fine, nothing You-Know-Who's death couldn't solve!" quipped Tonks in a mood swing.

Ginny looked a Hermione and she raised an eyebrow. Hermione mouthed "Deaths?"

Ginny nodded and mouthed "Only survivor," Hermione's mouth formed an 'O' of understanding and resumed her indifferent stance. Tonks had been in a group of aurors, mostly newbies, who were guarding St. Mungo's a week before. All of them had died, save her, when a mass of Death Eaters attacked a single room with three injured sisters in it.

The group ducked into Madame Malkin's Robe's for All Occasions to pick up Hermione's and Ginny's school robes as well as two sets of dress robes as required by the unseen supply list. Ginny and Hermione, despite the circumstances, threw themselves into having fun shopping in an attempt to draw Tonks out of her dark mood. Since Dumbledore's death, the Weasleys had inherited a small fortune courtesy of the late Headmaster's will. Mrs. Malfoy had tried to have the will discredited or frozen to prevent the transaction, but there was no loophole to be seen in the magically undisputed document. So Ginny had her choice of any robes available and Hermione was more than happy to help out.

"Look at this one!" exclaimed Ginny.

Hermione laughed and said "Ginny, I don't think orange is really your color...what about this one?" as she held up a white gown with pink roses printed on the bottom of the skirt. It had a wide neck, a scoop back, wide straps and a pink corded belt, so it was daring, but classy.

"Is it too 'virginal' do you think? I am in 6th year...not getting married." asked Ginny biting her lip and feeling the fabric. She added "I do want simple...but not pastel, or pink I think."

"Hmm, I might have something for you," interjected Madame Malkin. She walked into the back of the shop and came back carrying something black. "I just got this in this morning, Chinese silk and charmed to fit anyone." she said holding it out. It was floor-length, not poofy but wispy with an overskirt of fine sheer black cloth and a slit to the knee on one side. A Chinese button collar in black and a deep rounded 'V' neckline. Right under the bust-line was a black, quilted ribbon. It was completed by a removable floor-length jacket with long sleeves and a straight trimmed collar in black satin ribbon. The dress was sleeveless and elegant it made Ginny's eyes sparkle.

"Oh! Can I try it on?" exclaimed Ginny.

"It's lovely Ginny," said Tonks emerging from the corner of the shop with a smile on her face. Ginny rushed into a curtained change room and when she materialized everyone was grinning. Ginny had definitely grown-up.

After changing out of the dress Ginny went over to Hermione and whispered "It's too much! I won't be able to get the other dress if I get this one...but everyone likes it!"

"Ginny, I have extra, I'll buy your other dress, okay? Your mum never needs to know." offered Hermione.

Ginny bit her lip and said "Are you sure though? I don't want to get in the way of your shopping."

"Gin, it's fine, besides mum gave me enough for 4 dresses...I guess she wants me to have some fun...why not spend it like I want?" asked Hermione. "I want to spend it on you and I'm having fun doing it so relax."

"Thanks "Mione!" exclaimed Ginny and hugged her.

"Welcome, now what do you think of this dress for me?" said Hermione with a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Smashing! I never thought, are you sure? That one? I love the color!" rushed Ginny. Hermione was holding up a deep vivacious red gown with off the shoulder straps and a sweetheart fitted bodice. The front was gathered and landed about ankle level, while the back was long, gathered and dragged slightly on the floor to create a flowing elegant but sexy figure.

"Hmm, try it on Miss Granger" suggested Madame Malkin. "If you have good shoulders and a slender throat this cut is perfect albeit slightly bare...I think I may have the perfect fix for that though..." She swept to the front window showcase which held dazzling jewelry. She stood there the entire time that Hermione changed holding her chin and 'hmm'-ing to herself.

As Hermione exited the change room, Ginny exclaimed "I like it...but.."

"She needs this" cut in Madame Malkin placing an exquisite choker around Hermione's neck. "One hundred sixty-four rhinestones hand placed by the muggle designer. Magical isn't always enchanting as I always say, any witch could've magicked a necklace but it's so much more...classy when it's hand done. There!" Sitting on Hermione's neck was a 2 inch thick silver choker made up of black inlay and rhinestone set squares. From theses squares where several strands of clear rhinestones. One had a teardrop rhinestone in the middle and the last (and longest) strand had a string ending in a larger perfect teardrop rhinestone. It fell just above the beginning of the bust and it made the dress.

"Give you black heels and you're perfect!" exclaimed Tonks "The boots don't really...do it."

"Bloody brilliant," commented Ginny "Now for another one!"

"Girls? This way may be a little faster..." suggested Madame Malkin pointing to a large circular platform on which Hermione was currently standing surrounded by mirrors. "Suggest a style and we'll run with it."

"Why didn't we do this in the first place?" asked Hermione.

"You just seemed to be having fun that's all." answered Madame Malkin. "Now give me something to work with...we can charm the colors, just give me a style."

"Hmmm" said Hermione putting her hand to her chin. "I know! Something backless? Long with long bell sleeves?"

"Aesalon it may not be completely backless but we'll try it...yes!" exclaimed Madame Malkin and she pointed her wand at Hermione and muttered. Instantly the long red dress melted away leaving a long blue and silver accented lace-up gown. It was slightly poof but the skirt was too long, so it was pinned up with tiny clusters of silver beading at various spots all over to create a draping effect. The front was straight with a small 'v' cut in the middle and had beading along the top. Long sleeves ending in a silver edged bell that completely hid her hands, in fact the sleeves almost touched the floor. The bodice was fitted until just below mid-hip level where it dipped in the front and back. Silver lacing up the back from just above the hip was intricate and finished in a small elegant bow at the bottom with ribbon trailing down. "Do you like the color?" asked Madame Malkin.

"I..I.." sputtered Hermione.

"Can the silver be black?" questioned Ginny.

"Certainly!" replied Madame Malkin and pointed, a shimmer hit the silver in five points and seemed to burn along them changing everything silver to black. "Better?" she inquired.

"What do you think Hermione?" prodded Ginny.

"I like the silver better I think...sorry Ginny." said Hermione flashing an apologetic smile in the mirror to her. With a twinkle, the silver was back.

"Hermione?" asked Tonks "I don't know about those sleeves...it takes away from the dress a bit."

"You're right. Can you?" wondered Hermione.

"Yes I most certainly can." stated Madame Malkin, she pointed and the sleeves seemed to disintegrate. " I always did think Aesalon overdid his designs."

"So? What do you think Hermione?" asked Ginny.

Hermione smiled softly and announced "Perfect."

Ginny whooped and said with glee "My turn!" Hermione was changed back into her clothes and stepped off the platform. "I know what I'd like I think...I want to be seen as grown up! Nothing poof...but bellowing maybe. Bright and sleek...tassels, but not too many."

"Umm, alright than I'll see what I can do.." thoughtfully stated Madame Malkin then started muttering the names of different designers "Ptolemy...no no no...Arippa...no...Ronon?..Dowse!" She pointed and muttered quite excitably. Ginny was transformed, a sleek plain green gown with a wide neck to expose her shoulders and hugged to mid-thigh, then exploded out with crinoline.

"No no no, that'll never do!" lamented Madame Malkin and she tried again. This time the dress was a deep midnight blue with beading all over it. The fabric was velvet in an elegant tree design and shaved velvet elsewhere. The back was low with a long large knotted net-like ribbon cross. It had a deep 'V' neck and the straps were net as well with long tassels hanging down the back off each shoulder. "Is it bright enough for you? Or would you prefer another color?" asked Madame Malkin.

"No, I love it!" yelped Ginny.

After Ginny was changed and paid for her dress, she wandered over to Tonks on the other side of the shop to browse a little longer while Hermione paid for her purchases plus one for Ginny. Madame Malkin was a curiosity for her, how can she be so gleeful? "Things must have changed since the war began last year... how do you do what you do? Be so cheerful with the attitude outside?" questioned Hermione as Madame Malkin rang up her totals.

"I should be happy in the face of things, what good would it do to be sad? My husband died in the last war, I have nothing to lose now but customers and they make me happy. Each new face coming in here as a break from outside looking for that special something, shouldn't I provide a happy environment for them? Besides, sadness and despair are a deep dark well that once you fall in, you continue to tumble until nothing is left but worrying, crying, darkness and death and what good do those things do? Nothing." She finished with a smile, "Now, will it be cash or M.W?" (M.W is Magic Withdrawal from Gringotts).

After Hermione had paid, the trio exited the shop and, after stopping to pick up Hermione's things at the Leaky Cauldron, they floo-ed to Grimmauld Place. Since Dumbledore's untimely demise, the secret-keeper position for the Order had been re-established after much debate...but no one but the keeper themselves knew who it was after all that had known allowed, voluntarily, to have their memories of the fact obliviated. This time, maybe this time, the Order would be safe as they could be in these times.

Upon reaching Headquarters, Hermione was promptly bowled over by two massive blurs.

"'Mione! How are you? What's it like to be outside! How was your summer! You took forever shopping!" exclaimed each boy in turn not allowing Hermione a chance to breathe.

"Harry, I think oxygen is starting to become an issue for her!" interjected Ginny.

"Yes, thank you Gin," replied Hermione, "I'm fine now that I can breathe, outside is lovely but Diagon Alley is simply dismal, my summer was great besides missing you monsters and that last bit wasn't a question."

Both boys blushed and apologized, sheepishly, in unison.

At this point Mrs. Weasley came bursting in, and scolded "Ron! Harry! What did I tell you? No jumping on Hermione as soon as she's in the door! Merlin's beard, you're English Gentlemen not a bloody pack of wild dogs!" then she turned to Hermione, without missing a beat and started in on her "Hermione, dear, look at you! Skin and bones! What have you been doing to yourself? Girls these days! In my day being too skinny was sickening and being rounded was the way to go! Ginny, bring her into the kitchen, there is some hearty English stew on the stove and help yourselves! Harry, don't you have lessons to be practicing?" Ron started to edge away and she turned " Ronald Weasley! Get back here! You have lessons too! And Harry, don't you even think of going through her bags for a bloody newspaper! It'll be the last thing you'll ever read and you'll just have to find a way to defeat You-Know-Who blind!" With that she stomped up the stairs, throwing over her shoulder her final statement "I'm going to have a lie down, would you please set up for dinner girls? About 25 I suspect, but I want you to eat now and go to bed early. School tomorrow and all, I'm going to relax until then."

"What the bloody hell is she on about?" asked a completely bewildered Hermione.

"Bad isn't it? She's been like this for the whole summer, I should've warned you." replied Ginny.

"Tell me about it, I can't breathe without her snapping at me!" announced Ron. "She's gone mental!"

"C'mon Ron, you know as well as I that she's being pushed beyond her means, almost everyone of her family out fighting and her stuck here feeding everyone else." reprimanded Harry. "I know how see feels, I want to get out there! All this stuff I'm learning and I can't even use it! Give me one Death Eater and I'd make them all scared!"

"Harry, it'll get better at Hogwarts, it has to, doesn't it?" wondered Hermione. "Actually, I'm not that hungry just now, I really missed you guys but I need some sleep to be honest. I'm just going to head to bed...if that's okay with everyone."

"Yeah, it's okay" answered Ron. "And don't worry about setting up supper, she already did it."

"'Night then," said Hermione.

"G'night 'Mione" replied Ginny.

"Night," Harry and Ron responded, then looked at each other "We have got to stop-" then they burst out laughing and walked away.


	4. Consequences of an Act

Silence greeted the Death Eater's return to their Lord. The old Riddle house had quickly been improved for their use as the lair of Voldemort. It was said that the Dark Lord himself warded the grounds, but in reality, it wasn't remotely true. The only place one could apparate to on the grounds was dubbed "The Ballroom" where Tom Riddle had killed his father so many years ago. Dementors had the run of the grounds, under his direct control and had already dispatched a few curious muggles in their loveable way.

Sitting in my room, sickenly enough, his grandparents old room, I sat in the one rickety chair I had. The others in this large room had long since rotted away, along with the bed, drapes and carpeting. If I would only co-operate with him, it had the potential to be better, much better. Perhaps, like Bellatrix's room, which was the guest room next to Tom Riddle Sr.'s (and now Voldemort's) old room. I had seen into her room, sparkling and ornate, but filled with dark objects. Like my mother used to say before she found out that dad and me where wizarding folk, "When the devil tempts, he doesn't throw a dirty rag in your face!" Any moment now a house elf will come to fetch me for our audience with the Dark Lord. As the only witch in this house without the mark, I am an oddity. Kept under lock and key, no one dares question the Dark Lord about my prescence. After all, I am his special pet, his seer and his Magyne.

If you are of a more muggle background, the term "Magyn" may seem foreign to you. To make this the simplest of explainations, our word "Magyn" has been shortened, misspelled and used in many muggle fairy tales as "Genie". I have committed a wrong so terrible, that Merlin himself created the name for my condition. I am unfit to even receive the Dementor's Kiss! What did I do that was so wrong? No one remembers, but me. I murdered a man, the same offence of many a Death Eater. I am special in that, for reasons unknown, the Fates themselves have seen fit to punish me. Who are the Fates? No one really knows, because the only people who are made aware of my condition and the Fates reality, are the Magyn and its master or mistress. Trust me, these Fates have an ironic and cruel, sense of humor. As for what I do, I follow much the same lines as a "Genie", I am tied to Voldemort until I have completed my penance and are released to death. I do his bidding of my own free will simply because to disobey could mean anything, and nothing good. I do what I do so that Voldemort does not increase in power and possibly destroy Harry Potter, a person I greatly admire. I am an extremely powerful seer, and I seek out other seers for Voldemort, along with giving him my visions. Often, the seers I find are quickly destroyed and with increasing frequency, by my own wand. After an hour of having Voldemort able to see almost anything in my mind, I drove myself mad. At least that's my explaination for when I block him from seeing things. The madness clouds my mind so I can pick and choose what he can view, but he can see everything I see with my physical eyes. No, this audience bodes not well for me. If he questions me as to what I said to Hermione... I must think of something, anything!

"Miss Elis?" squeaked a tiny voice behind me. Standing up and turning around quickly, I find Peony, a house elf, cringing where she stands. "Miss? The Dark Lord wants to be seein' you, Miss!" before she disappeared back wherever she had come from. She was here because of me. Voldemort wasn't about to come all the way upstairs to fetch me and neither were any of the Death Eaters!

"Bloody Hell!" I whisper, before striding out of my room and down several flights of stairs to "The Ballroom". Corridors covered in mildew ended once I reached the floors that Voldemort frequented. This part of the house was beautifully restored to well past its former glory.

The doors to The Ballroom where open and I swept inside, steeling myself for the worst. To my surprise, there were few present. Voldemort graced his large stone chair on the raised mist dias to one side of the doors, Bellatrix hovered ever closeby, Lucius and Avery stood a little nervously by the door.

"Galara," Voldemort crooned, "You grace us with your presence at last I see?"

"Yes Tom," I piped up, he absolutly hated me calling him that. What could he do? Kill me? A laugh escapes my lips and echoes in the room, and everyone is staring at me. I break out into a raptorous grin and I exclaim quickly, "Summer bright and winter night! The spiders weave and the birds greave! Does anyone see the lying genes?" Catching a look of myself in the polished glass of empty portrait frames and annouce, "I look great! Don't you think so Tom?"

"Galara," Tom growls before whispering "Avada Kedavra" for everyone to hear.

The green bolt of light hits me square in the chest, and I fall to the ground gasping in pain. I cannot die because I still have penace left to do, but that doesn't mean he doesn't like to do it anyway. He has them convinced that he cannot die as well, and by 'killing' me, it provides great incentive to believe him.

My ribs ache, and I know I'm going to have one hell of a bruise...again...tomorrow. I wish I could heal myself, but unfortunately, my magic has limits. The stint with Hermione was going to cost me, I probably wouldn't get my wand back for ages! You see, Tom has it because he is my master, and he dictates when I get to have it. Damn him. Harry Potter would never go through nearly half the pain growing up if I only had my damn wand!

I choke and spit up what amounts to a large pool of blood on the floor, and he has the nerve to laugh!

"Too bad really, you're useless...what a sorry excuse for a witch! Clean it up!"

"And how would you like me to do that, Tom?" I gurgle.

"How impolite! Now I'm sure you have manners in your mash-for-brains...use your wand you imbecile!"

"Better mash than a sick, twisted and sadistic mind! Or have you forgotten? Everyone you've murdered ... they havn't forgotten Tom!" My eyes begin to rolls back and my voice becomes clearer, as if there was no blood in my throat, and more monotone. "Many dead but not gone and waiting for business to be done...a deal once dealt...lives aligning like stars...only one can live – Ah! Hatred fills and history begins again. A death will be the catalyst but those wheels are in motion...by the new light of a dying month of the lion – death becomes everyone..." _Bullocks I've done it again!_

_A/N: Sorry the chapters so short but it just seemed a good place to leave off, and I'm not sure if I should continue in Galara's POV or return to Hogwarts side of things...hope you liked it so far, please R&R!_


	5. Security Checks

Chapter 4

Ginny and Hermione headed upstairs into Ginny's room which now sported two matching blue twin beds on either side of the room. Several posters of wizarding bands and a few sports stars were on the wall, but none of which Hermione recognized. Frankly she was too tired to care just then and she tumbled into bed and fell promptly asleep after changing into proper pajamas.

The blackness of sleep swirled around her, but soon the dark began to take shapes. Moments after falling asleep she was standing in a small firelit cave, by salt water if the smell was anything to go on. Confused she sat down on the dirt floor by the fire in a tiny niche in the wall. 'What's going on?' she wondered.

Suddenly it was as if she was being 'pushed' out of her body and she began to view the cave scene from just above. Her body stood up and started to pace around, wringing her hands as she muttered.

Unknown time passed before a tall man with messy blonde hair entered. His green eyes flashed as he greeted her "Gwen! I'm so sorry, I was kept for too long..."

She hugged him and replied, "It's okay, I was only just beginning to worry anyway...any news? Can our plan proceed?"

He kissed her on the nose and laughed, "Of course it can, I wouldn't let anything stand in our way now would I?"

"I know," she answered drawing him into a kiss. They wrapped their arms around each other and were just about to deepen the kiss when she pulled away. "I can't, not just yet, but soon...oh everything is in such a mess" she lamented. "What if something happens? Are we ready?"

"Gwen," he said, while taking her face in his hands to wipe away frustrated tears. "You have studied and practised all you can, now comes the test and we will all face the brink of destruction, but isn't it worth it for the chance to come out the other side together?"

She laughed through her tears and replied, "Yes."

Hermione was bewildered by the whole scene and didn't know what to do, or how to get back into her body when she felt a fierce tugging. In a blink she was back in her body, distraught and being held by a man she had never seen before. Her face changed from contentment in the moment to pure confusion and she asked what she had been dying to ask, "Who are you?"

"That's not funny Gwen," he stated seriously. "You're the one who knows me best, and you know that I am..."

"**Hermion_e_** !" screeched Ginny, awakening Hermione. "We are so **late**! Bloody hell, we should've been up an hour ago, I bet the boys have already left!"

"What?" sleepily asked Hermione, still trying to let go of the shocking clarity of the dream and the fuzziness of reality. Then the impact of what Ginny had said made sense and she exclaimed "Godamnit!" Both girls rushed around getting dressed, last minute packing and other morning rituals.

Loud foot steps were heard coming up the stairs and they looked at each other and mouthed, "Bullocks!"

Mrs. Weasley, calmly said "Good morning girls, have a nice long lie-in did we?" then her tone changed and she snapped, "While I've been entertaining 10 Aurors?! Nine of which have now left with the boys?! Nymphadora is waiting for you and I suggest you get downstairs! Hurry now!"

"Yes mum," replied Ginny while Hermione hastily latched her trunk and hurried downstairs with Ginny right on her heels.

"Ready girls?" asked Tonks trying to hid her laughter at Mrs. Weasley's antics.

"Ready." they both agreed. Touching hands and holding onto trunks and Crookshanks, Tonks apparated them to an alley just beside the King's Cross to make up for lost time. Glancing around and dusting themselves off they headed towards the platforms.

Upon reaching platform , Ginny and Hermione looked at each other with confusion, there was a man in an ordinary navy business suit sitting on an ordinary red metal bench, reading an ordinary large leather-bound book with an ordinary black suitcase beside him right in front of a not-so-ordinary brick barrier to platform 9 3/4. "What do we do now?" whispered Ginny.

"We...I'm not sure..."admitted Hermione "We could try leaning against it still."

"And what? Drag ourselves and our trunks onto that bench?" laughed Ginny "I might as well curse someone or levitate it so more people could report the rambunctious teenagers."

Tonks who had been lagging behind leaned forward and prodded them, "You really think that we would let muggles block the platform do you? If we could fool Hermione, what's a few Death Eaters eh?" she chuckled then explained "He's an auror, very good one in fact, second in my class for disguises...I couldn't sit still long enough...anyway! He's the guardian, go ahead, touch the book and you'll see what I mean."

"Are you sure?" questioned Ginny.

"It's ingenious really, now lets see how this works..." Hermione pondered aloud. With that she gathered her things and in an apparent great rush she stepped forward and walked right up to the man "Excuse me!" she briskly stated as she 'pushed' by and as she did she stroked the spine with one finger.

The man straightened and said "Ah, Miss Hermione Jane Granger of Gryffindor! I do believe I have something for you..." From the book, newly appeared, he pulled a letter with her name on it and handed it to her.

As soon as she touched the letter, her surroundings seemed to simply dissolve and the colours bled into each other until she was standing in a room with a long blue and white hall beside a small half-moon shaped desk. Under her feet instead of the concrete platform she found hardwood flooring. Blue plastic chairs lined one wall in the hall and, in the same blue, tall doors dotted the other wall.

"Greetings Miss Hermione Jane Granger, and welcome to the Security Check Hall for Hogwarts!" a voice chirped. Startled Hermione glanced around wildly looking for any Death Eater daring to ambush her. Then she spotted the source of the noise, a portrait on the wall behind the desk. Depicted was a small bird-like woman dressed in vibrant greens, pinks and yellows. Her nose was long and similar to a beak. Flowing down her shoulders was feathery blonde hair and she seemed to be perched on a small red stool. "You'll only be detained a moment, and for the meantime please have a seat and an auror will be right with you. This is for your safety and please refrain from any magical use. Your belongings have been separated from you briefly to be checked and will be returned to you at Hogwarts once you pass inspection. Thank you and have a pleasant day!" finished the bird woman before melting into still-life, only moving her eyes, which is why Hermione missed her on the first glance over of the room.

With a sigh she walked over and plopped onto a chair just inside the door behind the desk. Trying to look calm but had her wand at the ready just the same. A slight sound, like the rushing of water, echoed from the spot where she had been standing and then... Ginny appeared! She looked around for a moment and once her eyes laid on Hermione she began to walk towards her. Before she could take a step the portrait sprang to life and chirped "Greetings Miss Ginevra Molly Weasley, and welcome to the Security Check Hall for Hogwarts! You'll only be detained a moment, and for the meantime please have a seat and an auror will be right with you. This is for your safely and please refrain from any magical use. Your belongings have been separated from you briefly to be checked and will be returned to you at Hogwarts once you pass inspection. Thank you and have a pleasant day!"

Ginny was silent for a moment and then asked, "Did she do that to you?"

Hermione answered, "Yes, annoying really..."

"Should I curse it or what?" she responded without missing a beat.

Hermione just stared and once Ginny started to laugh when the portrait 'hmph-ed' she laughed too. "But seriously," said Ginny, "I have some of that new paint tape that Fred and George came up with. Inspired by Mrs. Black I'm sure, but it's great! Take a paint brush and dab on some of this silver potion and it binds to the figure in the portrait, shutting them up! They called it 'Tattle Me Not Tape'"

"Um given the present war situation...isn't that a little dangerous?" asked Hermione.

"Well no, it wears off in 10 minutes or so. Pretty smart of them actually." answered Ginny.

Before Hermione could reply a door opened and a short woman with black hair and piercing blue eyes beckoned her, "Please come in Miss Granger."

As she crossed the threshold of the door she noticed a thin golden line and smiled to herself. An age line, probably looking for Death Eaters under the polyjuice potion.

"Now, Miss Granger, I just wanted to ask you a few questions, but first may I see your wand?" requested the lady.

"Of course, Ms...?" replied Hermione as she reached for her wand.

"Names are not important right now but you may call me Ms. Jones." explained Ms. Jones.

"I'm sorry, I don't normally just hand out my wand to just anyone, I need some proof that this isn't just some 'kill the students' scheme hatched by Voldemort." inquired Hermione.

"They told me you wouldn't be as cooperative as most...very well." replied Ms. Jones. "I am Ada Jones, graduate of Hogwarts class of 1989. McGonagall's prize student in those days, Head Girl and in Gryffindor, do my credentials impress you?" she questioned.

"Not really, I beg your pardon, but you just sound like me, except for the 1989 part you could be me." Hermione curtly responded.

"I see," sighed Ms. Jones. "Well could you just hold out your wand? I just need to scan it! This is wasting my time!" Hermione agreed and held out her wand in a tight grip. Ms. Jones waved her wand over Hermione's and mumbled to herself, "vine wood...inches...drag...heart..ing...core." straightening she spoke plainly "This is certainly the wand registered to Hermione Jane Granger, and you look, act and are the appropriate age. Have you had any odd things happen to you? Or a black out? A time when a dark wizard could've placed the imperius curse upon you?"

Thinking back on past events, Hermione decided the wisest course of action to be silence on the subject, "No, I most certainly have not."she said.

"Please drink three drops of this veratiaserum and state you name, house, age and birthday." instructed Ms. Jones. Handing her a small vial of clear liquid.

Gulping Hermione did as requested after considering the pro's and con's of disobeying this Ministry Official. "I'm Hermione Jane Granger, Gryffindor and I will be 19 on September the 19th" she correctly answered.

"Excellent, you may proceed Miss Granger!" exclaimed Ms. Jones somewhat begrudgingly. She handed her a letter with an address on it, but she only got as far as the first line, 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry' when the letter burst into flames and she was propelled through a wall and fell down in a grassy field.

"What the hell?" she cursed as she picked herself up and took a look around. She was on the edge of Hogwarts grounds! There was Hagrid's hut about 30 feet to her right and she could see the front entrance of Hogwarts just over the hill. Turning her attention back to the field she was in she noticed 3 circles of stones about 3 feet in width and she was standing in one of them.

"'Ermione! It's abou' time yeh arrived! Yer Head Girl now! Couldn't be prouder of yeh!" Hagrid blurted as he walked up behind her. "Awful business I' is! Can't ev'n take the train! Never 'n Dumbledore's day!" at this a great fat tear dripped down his cheek, "I still can't believe..." then he pulled himself together and took a deep breath, "Ah well, couldn't be prouder yah know, always knew yeh'd be Head, yeh'll right show Ernie Macmillan this year won't yeh!"

"Ernie Macmillan?" she asked, "What's he got to do with it? He's not actually coming this year is he?" Ernie's family had tried to pull him out of Hogwarts after Dumbledore's death, but to Ernie's credit, he had stayed for the funeral. This Ernie reminded her of another Ernie whose death she had witnessed just that day, she wondered if the bus had been discovered yet...

Hagrid mistook her shudder as one of disgust and gave her an odd look. "I'll say 'e is! 'e's Head Boy this year!" he answered. "R'minds me of that one Weasley, 'e does..."

"Oh well, I guess he's better than somone like Malfoy," she sneered, "Stupid git, at least I won't have to put up with him this year, not after what he did!"

"Now, now" he began. "Almost all the Slytherins are back, parents figure better tah have insiders and whatnot...'e's here only b'cause I' was his word again'st 'arry's and there was no proof that he actually did anythin'! Caddswallop in my opin'on! Besides this year is goin' tah be a strange un, and it's better to keep your friends close and enemies closest, but the Slytherins are about as cuddly as Umbridge, ghastly woman..."

"Bullocks, he'll be here probably to kill us all in our sleep or something equally as cowardly, spineless weasel." she spat.

"'Ermione! I agrees wit' yeh, but me bein' a teacher 'nd all, no prejudices yeh know." he countered a little hestitantly.

Hermione laughed at that and agreed, "I know Hagrid, where is everyone anyway?"

"They're all up a' the castle, where you should be gettin' off the!" he answered. Then one of the stone circle began to glow and vibrate. "Here comes another un!" he warned.

With a sudden flash, Ginny stumbled forward and fell to her knees. "What a horrible, horrible woman! If I could use my wand..." she trailed off mumbling, " bloody...best bat-boogey...magic..damn her..."

"Who did you get?" asked Hermione. "I got Ada Jones..."

"Nah," responded Ginny then spat the name like it left a bad taste in her mouth, "Bertha Edwards...damn blonde woman! Was convinced I was Bellatrix in disguise...tried to make me tell her where Voldemort was hiding, what his plans were and if it involved Harry's owl because he shouldn't be afraid of Harry but only of her blah blah blah..." Then the absurdity of it all struck her when Hermione let out a giggle and they both erupted in laughter. Even Hagrid chortled a bit and then looked at the two lunatics rolling around on the ground and was unsure of what to do.

"Err...Ginny? 'Ermione? I think they might want yah two the go tah the castle...Hello?" Hagrid questioned while looking very lost. "I didn't think I' was tha' funny."

Both girls stopped, tears rolling down their cheeks and apologized. Ginny asked, "Is Harry and Ron here?"

"I don't know fur sure, they should've gone directly teh th' castle tah report teh McGonagall." he replied.

"Thanks!" they both said and rushed off in the direction of the castle.

"Bless 'em Merlin!" Hagrid said to the wind, "They'll need tha' laughter in the times tah come...may we all pull through." A tear could be seen rolling down his cheek and was lost to his beard before he turned back to the stone circles to await the next arrival.

When they reached the Main Doors, Flitwick was sitting behind a desk shuffling papers.

"Hullo professor." greeted Hermione, flushed from her run across the grounds.

"Afternoon professor." acknowledged Ginny equally flushed and still wiping tears from her eyes.

"Greetings girls, good to see you back again!" replied Flitwick, shuffling through the papers at a more frenzied pace. "Curses," he muttered to himself before pulling out his wand, "Accio Granger record," and a 2 sheets of paper floated up and into his hand. "What a tidy record Miss Granger! Few reprimands and many praises! Good to see!" commented the small man.

"Thank you professor!" replied Hermione.

"Lets see, with the double Defence Against the Dark Arts this year there are a few changes to the normal time table, less free time I'm afraid! We were fortunate to secure two teachers for the one course. Without the train, today will be a little different, students have been arriving all day! Here's your timetable, and your new room is close to the Great Hall behind the portrait of the phoenix rising from the ocean, Dumbledore had it commissioned last year, before it was Gretel the Great...but she grew too arrogant to open for anyone. You can set your own password by stating the last password and asking for the new one, but for now your password is 'Lumen'. Headmistress will be by before tonight's welcoming feast to brief you in your duties!" finished Flitwick to draw breath before starting again, "Accio Weasley record!" and he was engulfed in papers, nearly a third of all the papers on the desk. He sputtered as he brushed off the offending records, "Interesting family Miss Weasley, very...comment worthy. I thought they said that they got rid of Fred and George's records..." he broke off muttering, "Burn them...keep...students...getting ideas...dangerous...Anyway! Accio Ginevra Weasley record!" 3 sheets of paper floated into his hands. "Ah," he said, "you know where the Gryfinndor tower is and this year's password is 'Widderskien'. Here's your timetable and now off with the both of you!"

They started up the stairs when a thought struck Ginny, "Hermione, you won't be sharing a room with the Head Boy will you?"

"Ernie Macmillan?" she replied.

"No!" exclaimed Ginny, "Isn't he off at 'How to be Minister for Magic in 10 steps' camp or something?"

"Apparently not," she responded.

"You're not rooming together right?" repeated Ginny.

"According to 'Hogwarts: A History, we're not as part of the old stringent 'boys here and girls there' tradition but this year has already been turned upside down so who knows?" she answered.

"That would be interesting," commented Ginny, "He studies almost as much as you do!"

"He does not!" shuddered Hermione. "He was in the DA, and he wasn't that bad..."

"So you admit that you're bad then?" asked Ginny innocently.

"Hey! I never said that!" she retorted.

"Sure, sure," teased Ginny, "Must be frustrating, always being second to a Gryffindor! Maybe he'll sabotage your homework to get ahead!"

"He would never dream of doing that!" she responded, "If he wanted to be top, he'd want to earn it! Besides this year is more about training for your respective career anyway..."

Ginny got this terrified look on her face and she replied with wide eyes, "If he made you fail an exam...he'd be destroyed...no Death Eater could be more inventive in torture! And if he killed you...he'd never sleep again because you'd be right there in the most awkward situations, like Myrtle!"

"Not funny!" chastised Hermione. "Anyway, here's my portrait! I guess I'll see you at the feast eh?" As she stopped in front of a ceiling to floor painting in a gilt golden frame that was about five feet wide. The scene was bordered by two towering cliffs of granite-like stone and the little you could see of the sky was night with a few stars and a crescent moon in the right top corner. But the image that drew your eye was at the middle, a majestic bird bursting forth from foaming waves just about to spread its magnificent wings wide and mouth open in call. The blues and whites of the ocean was enchantingly mixed with the reds, oranges and yellows of the phoenix and the silver and black of the night's sky. So incredibly full of details, a path along one cliff, the rocks below, but what really made you look again wasn't the fusion of colour, but the face of the bird, a perfect tear was nearly lost in the water of the ocean and it's call seemed to be haunt her even though she couldn't hear it. "It's beautiful," she breathed.

"And I get stuck with the Fat Lady...geez, but I can see your room later right?" asked Ginny.

"Sure, after the feast, I just want to get settled in." said Hermione, suddenly over-eager to be rid of Ginny and able to discover this new room for herself.

"Okay, don't get lost in there!" warned Ginny as she went to leave and called, "See ya!" over her shoulder.

"Bye..." responded Hermione, "Lumen." The phoenix bent its neck to look straight at her and smiled, odd looking with a beak but it did. Nodding its head it spoke in a slightly screeching voice, "Accepted, Welcome Miss Granger, you'll find all you require within." Then it spread it's wings in glorious fashion and the portrait swung open.

Behind it was an arched entry in the grey stonework of the wall and the pentagon room beyond was cavernous in size. A fire already burned merrily in the wood panelled fireplace with a lion face grate to the left of the door. The panels were carvings of all four house mascots with the Hogwarts crest occupying the centre panel. Perched on the mantle, a round brass clock with silver numbers ticked away the minutes. In front of that was a love seat in the deep burgundy of Gryffindor, and two matching overstuffed and faded gold armchairs with Ravenclaw blue throw pillows. The floor was all deep and dark hardwood with several Turkish style carpets placed around. Directly across the room from the entry was a spiral staircase in the same wood as the floor. To the left of this was an arched wooden door in the stonework, the plaque on it read "Head Library" in black lettering. This sent thrills down her spine, imagine that, a library to herself. Funny, but only now did she realized that not once had she seen a Head Girl or Boy in the normal library, so it made sense that they would have one to themselves. Between the Library door and the fireplace was a tall wooden bookcase set into the corner, but it was empty.

To the right of the staircase was another door with a plaque in burgundy lettering that read "Gryffindor Common Room". To the right of the entry was a small wooden dining table with a black loop design on the top and four straight backed chairs with burgundy and gold striped seats trimmed in black. Just behind this on the wall was another door, smaller than the other two and with no plaque. Between this door and the Common Room door, fitted into the corner was a curved desk and modern Slytherin green swivel chair. Oddly, for this was a castle full of portraits, there were no paintings on the wall.

Finally daring herself to look up she saw the same enchanted ceiling as in the Great Hall, but it was marred by a large silver chandelier with softly glowing candles and crystals. Being the only silver thing in the room it screamed 'odd one out' but in a weird way it didn't seem out of character for this room of odds and ends. Thrown together in such a way that it was soaked in character, a little from each Head Girl and House, Hermione supposed.

Stepping forward she saw that she had missed the brass coat hooks to the right of the door and the small ledge-like wooden table to the left. Scattered throughout the room were twin electric brass wall sconces to add light to the already well lit room.

Wondering where her bed would be and what that would be like made her rush towards the spiral stair and bound up them two at a time. What she saw made her freeze on the top step. It was as extraordinary as the room below. The stair was encased on three sides by a polished wooden banister. The left side of the room was dominated by a gargantuan, bigger than king size, burgundy curtained bed. It was so tall that there were a small set of three step stairs to reach it. A petit wooden bedside table was occupied by a silver lamp with a blue shade and antique brass clock with golden hands and the window on the wall behind the stairs on this side had a faded gold window seat with two yellow pillows.

The right side of the room had a vanity with numerous bottles of lotions and potions of different shapes and shades directed at the vain and the only thing that hung from the wall in the room was the oval mirror for it. Beside that was a door, which when she opened it, housed a queen-sized walk in closet already stocked with clothes...but not hers. The window on this side had a handle, which she assumed was for going out onto the balcony she could see outside through the window.

On the balcony was a long wood bench with white pine rose inlay and a golden telescope covered in knobs of all shapes and sizes.

Going back inside she caught a glimpse of her clothes in the mirror. She had been unable to change into her uniform because she had assumed she would be able to change on the train and since that never happened...

"Nice outfit," commented a motherly voice, "Although you should wear more off-the shoulder cuts instead of low cuts to accent your neck, but we have all year to work on it my dear!"

"What the..." she said beginning to panic and looking around before she remembered. Mirrors in the wizarding world talked, no threat here. "Sorry, I forgot you could talk." she apologized.

"That's alright, but it tells me you're a muggle-born." observed the mirror. Seeing Hermione's slight grimace she interjected, "Am I wrong?"

"No, you're not wrong, I'm just waiting to see if you're one of those 'Hail Pureblood' mirrors." explained Hermione.

The mirror chuckled, "No, no! I have seen more half-bloods and muggle borns become Head Girl than the old Truebloods. Too much inbreeding I believe."

"Really? That's interesting..." she replied. "I didn't see another bedroom here, but am I sharing with the Head Boy?"

"Oh no!" exclaimed the mirror. "Everything here, you earned! Besides, mixing the sexes tend to have...negative results."

"That's a relief," she answered. "Do you have a name?"

"You can call me, Gemma." requested the mirror. "And who do I have the pleasure of preening this year?"

"Oh, I'm Hermione, Hermione Granger." she introduced.

"Delighted!" responded Gemma. "Now go and see the bathroom! If you think this room's to die for, wait until you see!"

"Why? What's so special?" asked Hermione, thinking on the prefects bathroom. "Where is it?"

"It's downstairs, that's all I know. I am just a mirror! Go and see!" commanded Gemma.

Hermione rushed downstairs and headed for the unmarked door that was by the dining table. Throwing open the door she gasped in shock. No way was all this for just one person!

The bathroom, or more accurately bathhouse was in a Roman style. Columns of white marble lined a crushed white seashell walkway that lead along the stonewall to the right. To the left was an open door that showed a modern toilet "Thank Circe" thought Hermione and sink resting on mosaic flooring that depicted a large tiger lily and several smaller flowers she couldn't identify. The entrance that she was standing in had constellations on the floor, and between each different mosaic scene the transition was done with slender tendrils of the previous one 'leaking' into that of the next. It was amazingly done and she was almost too afraid to walk on such beautiful artwork. Walking gingerly ahead she went through a room that had a purple curtain on either side for dressing rooms with wooden benches and pegs for hanging clothes. The floor illustrated an ancient Roman village in surprising detail. Here she changed out of her runners into some wooden sandals she found by the door. Continuing on she found a cold bath about the size of a large bathtub, located on her left in the next room with odd symbols shown on the floor. Further down she discovered a large tepid bath, that could comfortably seat 16 people, along the same wall as the cold bath. On the wall behind each tub was the usual array of faucets. But on the other side of this room there were two elephantine columns in each corner. Each column was glistening white marble and about 8 feet in diameter. These weren't ordinary Roman columns either, because they had an average sized frosted glass arch door. Curious, Hermione opened both of them to take a look inside. The column closest to the cold bath contained a hot tub and the other was a shower done in the same white marble. On the floor between these two columns was a huge rectangular black slab of marble. Since this seemed to be just be part of the floor she turned her attention to the wooden door on the far wall. Opening this she realized at once what it was, a sauna, because of the huge cloud of steam that had now settled around her.

Going back out after changing into her shoes, she started to follow the pathway which rounded a corner. Stopping to observe the jaw-dropping scene in front of her, she gasped. Beside the bath house was a long open area that was lined on one side by the bath house itself and on two sides by the column lined path and then finished by the stone wall of the castle. In the middle of this was a gigantic long pool, complete with diving board, for laps and set into the wall of the bath house was a marble fountain made up of 3 circular half bowls cascading water into each other.

There was no way this could all be for her. If this was the Head Girl's room what must the Headmaster's or mistress' room be like? A castle within a castle? Thinking back she realized that throughout her years at Hogwarts not once had she seen a Head in the library, and rarely in the Great Hall, never alone anyway. The prefects patrolled the halls at night, so what were they doing? If this was the room they had, obviously the answer was here and that lead to the question; 'why would they leave it except for class?'

"This is going to be one hell of a year!" she commented to herself before she turned and rushed back to _her_ common room to further evaluate her situation for the coming year.

Upon actually reaching the common room she noticed that a lot more time had passed than she had previously thought, it was almost four pm. Crossing the room to take a better look at the clock she almost tripped right over her trunk, book bag and Crookshanks. Immediately her cat began howling to be let out and seemed to have hair scorched off in several places, no doubt, courtesy of the "Security Check".

When she didn't rush to let him out, she was in minor shock at the state of him, he started to rock the cage back and forth until it rolled around on the ground. All the while he was hissing, growling and making scary unhappy noises.

Recovering herself, she ran over to where the cage had rolled to and released her poor vexed cat. Before she could scoop him up into her arms, he tore out of his cage and shot into some nearby hiding place. Worried, she began looking for him everywhere but after half an hour she still couldn't find the damn thing.

"Well, if you won't let me help you and you're in this kind of a mood, you are obviously alright without me." she stated to the room before she grabbed her book bag and levitated her trunk up the stairs behind her.

Setting her trunk down on the floor in front of her closet, she opened it and instead of the neat folded piles of clothes and shrunken books she and her mother had packed, she found an exploded array of clothes, jewelry, books and toiletries jammed in every which way and a few shrunken things that hadn't been shrunken when she had packed. Mumbling obscenities to herself she began to make sense of the chaos and put things away. Underwear in the drawers under the vanity, the rest of the clothes in the closet at the front, makeup on the vanity, toothbrush in the bathroom with the toilet and her books on the bookshelf. Finally everything was put away in an orderly fashion and she had changed into her uniform, minus the Head Girl badge she had yet to receive. Once the trunk was empty she had discovered scorch marks within it, like someone had tried to hex it. Crookshanks was still MIA, so she went downstairs to finish some of the extra light summer reading she had to do.

At five-thirty a knock sounded on the portrait and she answered it, it was Headmistress McGonagall.

"Good evening Miss Granger," she began, "You have found your rooms to your liking I trust?"

"Very much Headmistress," Hermione replied.

"You can still call me "Professor' if you'd like." she commented.

"Yes, Professor." answered Hermione.

"I have brought your texts, no doubt that you would like to read them before tomorrow's classes," she remarked, "Also, here is your badge." Handing Hermione a small badge shaped gold pin with the Hogwarts Crest on it and "Head Girl" printed in black at the bottom. It was smaller than the prefects badge but was a little more, official looking. "Being Head Girl is a proud thing, but you don't have to see it glaring on your chest across the castle like the prefects, it does make some of them lord over their friends," she laughed. Then she pointed to the left lapel of Hermione's robe, "It gets pinned there, same as the prefects, but I shouldn't have to tell you that," she explained, "Now, your duties! You don't have to patrol, but you do have to organize the prefect's patrols. The black marble block in your bathroom allows you to see most of Hogwarts as well as the students." Seeing Hermione's slightly confused face she explained, "Did you think that only the Marauders could have made such a thing? It's a complicated piece of magic but your own block doesn't show teachers. Where did you think they got the idea from?"

"I don't know..." answered Hermione.

"Remus, perhaps?" she replied. "He was a prefect in his 6th year...but anyway, say 'Reveal' and it will show you almost any part of Hogwarts. You can hand down detentions with my approval and dock house points. You oversee the prefects to make sure no unfair dealings with house points occur. You may also hand out points, but any abuse of this system will strip you of your title and all that comes with it. Since you did so well on your O.W.L's, as did Ernie Macmillan, you will be teaching a Defence Against the Dark Arts tutorial with Macmillan on all your free periods. You will be provided a classroom and materials to work with. Together, you and Macmillan, will organize the prefects into three dance committees. They will be a Halloween ball and Christmas ball as well as a Year End. Frankly, with the tutorial you will be conducting, you will have little time for doing most of the duties that are given to the Heads, which is why many of the previous duties that would have been yours will be handed down. Since we do not know at this time whether or not the war will be over by then, the students may not be going home. So I would be grateful if you would stay over the summer break, if necessary, to aid us with them. Of course, you would be allowed plenty of training time for your career."

"Okay, do I still have two Defence Against the Dark Arts classes?" interjected Hermione, "And I'll have to come to a decision about this summer at the end of the year..."

"That's what I expected, and yes, if you glance at your timetable you would see that you have DADA every day instead of every other day. Anything else you may need to know will be announced at the feast, which you and I need to be off to. Good Luck in the coming year Miss Granger, the Head Girl next year will have big shoes to fill." She finished and left the room.

Hermione put on her pin and went upstairs to check her appearance before leaving. This would be the first time any of them would see her as Head Girl and she needed it to be an impressive sight.

Later, in the Great Hall, Hermione sat in her usual place across from Harry and Ron and was busy discussing summer activities and the many empty places around them when Neville plunked down beside her.

"Double DADA? Why couldn't it be double Herbology?" he complained.

"Mate, I think I'd rather have the extra DADA class instead of shaking a daisy in the face of a Death Eater!" laughed Ron.

"Yeah, he might think you were asking him on a date!" added Dean. "I'd Kedavra you just for that!"

"Ha Ha! You all think you're so funny don't you? Herbology is actually quite useful for defence I'll have you know!" snapped Neville.

"Sure it is mate!" joked Seamus. "I'll just take my little pocket full of posies and make all the Death Eaters apparate to safety!"

"Actually he's right," interjected Hermione, "For instance if you distill the sap of..."

"Mione, please!" groaned Ron. "School hasn't started yet!"

"Has anyone seen Hannah?" asked Ginny. A round of "no's" went around. "Do you think she's coming back?" Hannah had left the previous year early because of the murder of her mother by Voldemort's Death Eaters.

"Probably, I mean, where else would she go?" answered Ron. The fact the she might very well be dead let the question hang unanswered in the air.

"Classes will be interesting at least," blurted Hermione in the uncomfortable silence, this had the desired effect because everyone started groaning and teasing her. Soon, to her relief, McGonagall

called for quiet.

"Students and staff! Let the sorting begin!" announced McGonagall, looking at little uncomfortable behind the great podium once used by Dumbledore. Lead by Professor Binns, a short line of more-than-usually-scared first years made their way towards the sorting hat.

Once shuffling had quieted the seam opened and the hat burst into its start of the year rendition:

This year my words will be short,

Saddened am I by things of this sort,

Although to everyone I am just a patched hat

By the founders, given brains and all that

To future generations I divide you as they saw fit,

Now, I'm sure they regret the weakening split,

To Ravenclaw, the cunning!

The questing brain was her art!

To Gryffindor, the stunning!

His mark was his daring heart!

To Slytherin, the best!

The purest blood was his game!

To Hufflepuff, the rest!

The helping hand was her claim!

What we seek is within these walls,

Plainly seen in classes and halls,

Together, stand strong against the tide

Lesser beings would run and hide,

But Hogwarts will never cower

Nor retreat to its tallest tower

Today I will sadly divide you,

Later, recall these words on cue,

From Gryffindor to Slytherin

All hold the qualities within

To throwback these bonds of war

And usher a new era in the door

Of peace and acceptance,

Of strength and tolerance,

To the one I gave the sword,

In this year your fate is moored,

But do not drown in your despair

Fate's eye will turn to another pair

Finally, remember my words

For unity is not the work of thirds!

The last of the hat's poem faded away to echo, and the Hall was as silent as a tomb lost to time. Then MacGonagall sternly cleared her throat and broke the spell, "Thank you for your guiding words Sorting Hat, will Lindsay Burke please approach the seat?" A short brunette girl with curly hair skittered forward.

Harry started in again on the topic of Heads, "So what's it like to be Head finally Hermione?"

"Ah mate, don't get her started!" lamented Seamus, "I don't want to hear about how her rooms are just so much better than ours!"

"_Hufflepuff!!"_

"_Jamie Carnsteen!"_

"How do you know they're any better than your dorm?" asked Hermione.

"Awe, come on don't you think I could get a guided tour of the rooms last year if I wanted?" he suggested earning the knowing chuckles of the boys around him.

"Nice, I bet Pavarti doesn't know about that does she Seamus? Maybe I should tell her, she does love juicy gossip..." trailed off Ginny watching his face as he paled.

"_Gryffindor!"_

"_Stephanie Custer!"_

"Ginny..." he warned. "It's taken 6 years for her to notice me, and that stupid fling would ruin my snogging sessions for the rest of the year, be a pal? One of the boys?"

"Ew, and why would I want to be 'one of the boys?" she questioned.

"_Hufflepuff!"_

"_Marc Fogley!"_

"Err," he stalled glancing around before throwing his arm around Harry. "Because of ol'Harry here, I'm sure you want a piece of his action!"

To which, Ginny snorted and Harry, pushing the offending arm away, replied "Sorry Seamus, but, you're not really my type mate!" The whole table burst out laughing, earning them a reproachful look from McGonagall. Ginny and Harry had agreed to friendship at the beginning of the summer after dating since the previous May.

"_Ravenclaw!"_

"_Jacob Gaunt!"_

"I wonder what the hat's getting at this year?" pondered Dean.

"Could it possibly be? Unity?" dramatasized Ron, throwing his hand to his face.

"Come off it Ron!" complained Harry.

"_Slytherin!!!"_

"_Elizabeth Jugson"_

"_Slytherin!!!"_

"Anyone heard anything about Quidditch?" countered Seamus. Launching the boys into a sports debate about whether the war would stop their favourite teams from playing.

"_Melissa McInnes"_

"_Gryffindor!!!"_

Turning to Neville, Hermione asked "How was your summer?"

"_Brenna Travers"_

"_Slytherin"_

"_Morgan Graine"_

He responded shaking his head, "Gran drove herself crazy trying to protect our family, I've never had to remember so many passwords and counter-curses in my life, our whole house was bogey-trapped! I singed my eyebrows off so many times I have to grow them back magically...yours?"

"_Ravenclaw"_

"_Merrick Michaels"_

"_Gryffindor!"_

"Average muggle stuff," replied Hermione, "Nothing to interesting, worked in the dentist office as a receptionist mostly..."

"_Austin Opie"_

"_Ravenclaw..."_

"That would be nice I guess," he commented, "I'd rather work for a muggle tooth torturer than spent two months with my half crazed gran! When she heard Hogwarts was still open...she just about tossed me on the front lawn! Told me to get to Hogwarts, dressed me in muggle clothes and gave me 'cabby fair'. She's living out the war in north London, I suppose. She's a tough one, my ol'gran! Last thing she said was to make Mum and Dad proud and not let any Death Eaters get the best of a Longbottom!"

"_Eunice Caron"_

"_Ravenclaw!"_

"Wow Neville," she said in awe, "I don't think I'd be able to do what you've done. I mean, I know my parents are safe because they are muggles...but your family...I know your parents must be so proud of you already! Look at your performance at the Department of Mysteries! Even I was unable to help Harry when he needed it most and you showed Bellatrix! I wish I could've done that..."

"_Chase Wiebe"_

"Awe, it was nothing much," he replied, "The orb broke in the end anyway, not much of a rescue."

"_Hufflepuff"_

"No one else could've done it any better Neville," spoke Harry, "I wouldn't have been any happier to have anyone else there. There's a reason you're in Gryffindor, the sorting hat is never wrong."

"_Susanna Travers"_

"_Gryffindor..."_

"_Brian Lesters"_

"_Gryffindor!"_

"_Devon Adams"_

"_Ravenclaw"_

"_Sanna Patil"_

"_Hufflepuff"_

"_Geoff Jansen"_

"_Hufflepuff"_

"_Ignatius Yaxley"_

"Poor kid, what a name!" commented Seamus, "Please don't be Gryffindor!"

"_Slytherin"_

"_Zinnia Rosier"_

"_Slytherin"_

"_Megan Klein"_

"_Gryffindor"_

"Attention everyone!" cried McGonagall, "In the tradition of my great predecessor, Albus Dumbledore, Dig in!" Instantaneously everyone was distracted by the grander-than-normal feast that appeared before them. The house elves had taken extra care and went all out to ring in the new school year, as if anticipating the times ahead. Then, after Ron's sixth helping of pasties, she started in on the announcements, "As always, the forbidden forest is actually forbidden, Filch is keeping a special eye out for 'Weasley Wizarding Weezes' products, anyone found in possession of fainting fancies or canary creams and the like with be promptly placed in detention. There will be absolutely no going off of school grounds, this includes Hogsmeade!"

All the students seemed to groan as one, making the Great Hall echo, "This is for your own safety! Any student caught doing so will be expelled! There is two teachers I would like to introduce to you, they are in charge of our two DADA classes, please give a warm welcome to Professor Bradshaw and Professor Aberdeen!"

A slender dark woman of about 5' 1 stood up and bowed beside a much taller brunette man. Glancing around, every boy in the hall was staring at her. She was young, and dressed as such. Her robes were black like the rest of the staff but underneath her dress was wine red and slim-cut, a black corded belt hung low on her waist and from it dangled a small golden key.

Professor Aberdeen had short brown hair and work a black robe with navy blue robes underneath them. Perched on his nose were tiny silver spectacles and his face broke out in a warm grin as he surveyed the room.

"Also," added McGonagall to cover the lack of applause, "Professor Firenze has agreed to continue to teach Divination every other day. Professor Steblin will be teaching Care of Magical Creatures this year! We were fortunate to have him take a year off his research for his book 'Plethora Bestia'! "

She paused as the short dirty blonde man in green robes who, was taller than Flitwick but a good head or two shorter than her, did an awkward bow.

"My dear friend, Professor Wade," she motioned to a stooped older man with a short nose and a missing little finger on one hand. " Has agreed to come out of retirement to teach Potions this year in light of last year's events. My duties as Headmistress has made it impossible to continue my own subject so, Professor Forsberg has agreed to come and instruct you." At this, an average height man with blonde hair and a beard dressed in brown robes took a bow.

"Your schedules have been altered slightly this year to allow for more class time due to the extra DADA. I expect good attendance in these classes! These professors have gone out of their way to come here and teach you! This year we have been rendered short for two Heads of Houses! The new Gryffindor Head of House will be, albeit temporarily, Professor Bradshaw and the Head of House for Slytherin will be Professor Vector. Thank you, prefects lead the first years!" she finished.

"Little testy today isn't she?" commented Ron. "Reminds me of mum!" To which everyone rolled their eyes.

"Can't believe we get her, in our last year!" whined Seamus, "Why me? Why couldn't she be younger and I could be younger and..." he was shut up by the Professor in question gliding by and glaring in his direction.

"Blimey," whistled Dean, "You're in for it now, mate!"

"Gryffindors! This way please!" called Hermione. "Prefects to the front! Okay, Everyone has the password for the tower except the first years correct?" Everyone nodded . "Excellent, everyone 2nd year and up, excluding prefects, are excused." She waited until everyone else had filed out before addressing their six first years. "Each prefect has a badge they'll be wearing at all times, so if you have any questions, address them or me." She paused, "Prefects, there'll be a meeting later tonight at nine, so in an hour and a half, with Professor Bradshaw and McGonagall in the Great Hall to distribute patrol timetables, rule lists and the like. Until then, please lead the first years to the dorm. I hope that this will be an excellent year for all of us and it'll be a pleasure to work with all of you! Good Night!" Then they filed out and she was left alone. Feeling like this great weight had been lifted, she felt overwhelmingly tired and decided to call it a night.

Returning to her dorm, she made a bee line for the stairs, having forgotten Crookshanks and, after changing into light night clothes, curled up in her bed and blissfully fell asleep.

INSERT

The next day went by in a blur until dinner, when Ginny clued her in that Susan Bones had finally returned and the rumour was that Hannah Abott would as well. The Montgomery sisters, Jo and Donna, had also returned since the unfortunate events preceding their leave last year. Their mother had been killed en route to their arrival and both girls were in seclusion for the time being.

"Awful stuff," comment Ron. "Imagine that, a five year old in the hands of that werewolf? It would be like locking a Hippogriff and Malfoy in a cage for a tussle, poor kid... I bet his mum never saw that coming when she turned down You-Know-Who..."

"Wow Ron," Hermione shook her head, "You definitely ascended a maturity level or four this summer."

"We all had to..." stated Harry quietly.

Just then Lavender came in, slid onto the bench beside Ron, who turned a little pink, and squealed, "I just heard from Pavarti, who heard from Padma, who was in his class this afternoon, that Professor Aberdeen, who is completely dark, mysterious, unattainable and sensitive, had a brother, who was a werewolf, and he was killed in some turf war in Russia...but anyway, he took on a whole pack of werewolves and won! Isn't that completely heroic and selfless?"

"Actually, I think the words you're looking for is vengeful and mental," quipped Ginny, rolling her eyes.

"What do you think Won Won?" she asked, sidling closer as she spoke, "Don't you think that someone who would go after a pack of werewolves because they hurt someone they loved, despite great personal risk, to find closure, just so romantic, heroic and selfless?"

"It was his brother!" said Ginny blatantly, "Since when is that romantic? Last I checked, incest was not best!"

"It's not that it was his brother, but that he would do that for someone he loved!" retorted Lavender. "Well, Won Won?"

Ginny snorted in reply and lamented, "Oh Won, If only I had known that you could be romantic for a brother! Oh Won, I love you..." Ron flushed with rage and began to reach his hands across the table and Ginny's jest was tinged with a little anger mixed with fear. "Ron! Sit down! Ron!"

Suddenly, Lavender was in Ron's lap and kissing him. Everyone else stared on, blankly, shock evident on their faces.

Hermione leaned over to Ginny and asked, "Didn't they break it off?"

Ginny looked on in disgust and replied, "Yeah, he dumped her because she wasn't mature enough for him." Then stated louder, "Well I don't know about you, but this has put me off my dinner!"

At that, Ron pushed Lavender away and rubbed his sleeve against his mouth, "Um, Lavender? I think we should talk..." Then he got up and said, "Now." before walking away with her in tow.

"What am I missing?" asked Hermione.

"Just after summer break started, Lavender wouldn't leave him alone! She didn't understand why she couldn't go to the burrow, obviously because we were at Headquarters, but he couldn't tell her that!" Ginny explained, "So she got into a huff, went a little mental and sent him a howler about how he must be cheating on her. At this point, he got fed up and dumped her. This was the first he's seen her since and apparently she doesn't think they're still broken up..."

"Oh," was all she said in reply. They hadn't told her anything, well not that they could've this summer...but they were all back now, shouldn't they at least fill her in, last she knew, Ron and Lavender were happy.

"Does anyone else find it funny that we have DADA at 8 o'clock tonight?" questioned Neville after a moment's uncomfortable silence.

"Yeah! Why do you think that is?" commented Seamus.

"Maybe she's a vampire," said Harry offhandedly.

"No, really? Do you think so?" asked Neville a little nervously. Hermione was about to tell him all how ridiculous they were being when she recalled that DADA for Professor Bradshaw was being held in the lower level of the Dungeons, so no windows. Suddenly the idea didn't sound ridiculous at all, actually, very plausible. They had had a werewolf, and a vampire wasn't that far off.

"Maybe she's allergic to the sun," reasoned Hermione.

"A witch? Allergic to the sun? And I'm the Queen!" stated Ginny.

"Well, Queen Ginny has a point doesn't she?" said Dean thoughtfully, "I mean, IF, she was a vampire, how could she teach DADA? It's all spells and counter curses innit? Now I don't know about you lot, but I have never heard of a witch-vampire!" They all agreed, and the topic of conversation switched to more normal things like quidditch and who was snogging whom.


	6. Dreaming ofWho?

Chapter 5

Later found them seated in one of the previously unused lower dungeon classrooms. A fire crackled in a raised bowl to take the chill and damp off with the smoke magically dissipating. Instead of the torches, like in Snape's classroom, there were bunches of candles floating by the walls. The desks lined these walls and there was an open expanse of about 15ft in the middle of the room. On the far wall from the door, sat the teacher's desk, and behind it, a floor to ceiling assortment of cages in the shape of a pyramid. Some cages were opaque, some clear but most were just barred and inside these cages was nothing at all. Seeing no teacher present, it was only five to, the class chattered amongst themselves about the possibilities of this teacher.

Talking stopped once all the candles extinguished as one and the gasps subsided. Then as quickly as they went out, the candles burned again and blinking against the light, the students could make out a figure now sitting at the teacher's desk. This figure stood and walked to the middle of the expanse and make quick work of assessing them.

"I see my little test has fazed not one, but all of you!" she barked. "I know you have had an assortment of Professors, but this is shameful! I could have killed you all."

Eyeing the asssortment of students from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw near the door, and then Slytherins on one side of the room and Gryffindors on the other, she snorted. "How the bloody hell do you expect to survive this war if you cannot even stand one another! The Headmistress assured me that you lot would exceed my expectations, but so far, I have yet to see her point. Clearly I am wasting my time if not one of you even thought to utter 'Lumos'!" she retreated to her table in disgust and began to tap her fingers with gusto. "Get out." she cooly stated, "I will not teach a bunch of snivelling brats with no brains nor willingness to learn! Class dismissed, Get out!"

Confused, the students slowly began to collect their things, all except Hermione, Harry, Ron and surprisingly, Pansy.

Hermione strode to the desk and hissed, "When did we show you that we were unwilling to learn! If you don't teach us, it will be on your conscience if even one of these students dies!"

The woman looked up with a blank stare and stated without emotion, "And what conscience is that girl."

"You cold, heartless, coward! It's not that we can't learn, it's that you can't teach!" she shouted. Everyone froze and stared with new interest at their Head Girl. Harry and Ron began to pick their way forward trying to get to their mental friend and minimize the damage.

"Impress me then, Granger." The woman commanded and seeing the look of surprise on Hermione's face, she continued, "I thought as much, only you would stand up for learning in such a manner, Miss Granger. Your repuation seems to have preceded you in this instance. But if you are the brightest witch in your year, go ahead, impress me."

In a huff, Hermione began to walk away, when she heard the woman mutter, "I thought so."

Enraged, she tore around, pulled her wand and did the one spell that her examinators had been impressed with, "Patronus!" The familiar silver mist poured from her wand and an otter began swimming in the air between her and her professor.

The woman began to clap slowly before standing, and barking to all of them, "Take your seats! You may thank Miss Granger later, but I dearly hope, for your sakes, that you will display the same amount of dedication that she has shown here today."

Holding her hands behind her back she commanded, "Take out your quills and parchment, we have a lot to cover, and I do not use a blackboard, and nor will I allow any of my instruction to go to waste by not taking your own notes! Now, I am Professor Bradshaw, and as you can see I have little tolerance for wastes of my time. I do tend to have a flare for the dramatic but this does not concern you. First we must get rid of this...separation amongst the students. I want everyone in each house to move. Every other student must be of a different house. Begin!" No one made to move, "I thought I said, Move!" A flurry of hands grabbing parchment and chairs being thrown backwards ensued.

Turning back around she saw that her instructions had been followed, she continued, "I will teach you every day at this time, and I detest tardiness! In my experience, Defence is made up of three parts, Magical, Mental and Physical. Any weakness in these three areas is a hole in your defence and any holes can and will be manipulated by the enemy. In this room, you will practice in all areas until I am satisfied. You will upon entering this room, no longer be Slytherins, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws and Gryffindors but simply students with a common goal. This is a NEWT's class and I expect nothing less than advanced students, I will not be told by anyone of you at anytime that you cannot do this. You can and you will or get out. It's as simple as that, either you are here and you fight for a chance to defend your life or you are out there waiting to die, it is your choice, I cannot make such a decision for you nor will I promise that just because I have taught you, you will not die. This is war, people die, there is no lies about glory and dying for the light coming from my mouth. Death is not glorious by any stretch of the imagination. So do not expect me to tell you that to die at the hands of Death Eaters or Lord Voldemort is a proud death" Here everyone, with the exception of Harry and Hermione, gasped and cringed. "How can you be so afraid of a name? A name that you have never met the person behind? Have any of you been tortured to the point of death for something? A location? A secret? Since you are all standing here before me today, whole and healthy, I do not think this is so. I digress, what happens in this room will stay here, if I transfigure you into a bloody cockroach or command you under imperious, so be it. All I can say is I wouldn't be here if the Headmistress didn't trust me or if your current state of affairs didn't call for dire measures to be taken. I do not expect all of you to make it to the end of the year, on the contrary I expect this class to be empty by half this time tomorrow. The students who persevere and make it to exams are the ones who truly wish to live. That is all for today, Good night." And with that she glided out of the room and it erupted in chatter behind her.

"What the bloody hell was all that?' erupted Ron. "Have you gone mental? You've never yelled at a teacher like that before! Well...except for Divination that one time."

"Was one word I said not true?" asked Hermione a little angrily. "It was all true, every word and she deserved what she got!"

"C'mon Hermione...Ron, lets go to the common room, you haven't been up there yet all year 'Mione!" chastised Harry.

"Okay, anyone up for exploding snap?" asked Ron and everyone laughed.

Days pasted by in quick succession full of classes, homework and organizing prefect patrols. Each night she would watch her marble block and see who was out and about after hours. She didn't fail to notice two dots, very close together, in old classrooms near Gryffindor tower, one labelled Lavender and one labelled Ron.

Soon it was her birthday, and, being a Saturday, a party was thrown in the common room for her. Dobby out did himself in cakes of every flavour, snacks of every type and drinks of every description. She even received presents from the teachers, and funny enough, a majority of these were books covering just about every subject, from A Thousand and One Hair Spells from Lavender, to A History of Extraordinary Magical Mishaps in the Ministry from Luna. Each of these came to be stored in her bookcase and she even tried a few new spells.

It was two nights after her birthday that it happened again, a dream about the blonde lady. Afterwards she woke to the feeling of such remembered grief that she couldn't sleep the rest of the night.

It had started with black nothingness, and then the dark began taking on shapes. A sharp pain was in her back and chest and she didn't know why. Putting a hand against the rough dirt floor she was currently laying on, she slowly pushed herself up causing starbursts to explode in her vision. This certainly felt very real, the coarse fabric of her dress, the tangles in her hair and the chill in the air because the door was open and the fire in the pit had long since burned out. Sliding up a wooden beam, she came to stand and survey the scene before her. A rough-hewn table and three chairs had been over turned, the door hung off its hinges and snow blustered inside the small clay and wooden structure. Straw pallets lay to one side of the room, a cauldron sat in the fireplace, skinned rabbits, herbs and pottery hung from the beams holding the straw roof up.

Confused, she took a step forward, stumbled and fell again. Getting up and feeling a little sturdier this time she looked back to see what she had stepped on. It was a dainty, leather clad foot. Gripping the beam for support, she hestitantly peered around it. What she saw made her sink to the ground and get violently sick.

The foot was attached to a pale leg, which was half covered by a blood soaked skirt. The body was ripped and slashed about the abdomen, and only the abdomen. The arms were bent at awkward angles and the face was staring at her in the throes of an unheard scream of terror. The same blonde hair that she wore adorned this poor soul, but this girl was older and had darker features than hers. By the look of the stomach and fit of the dress, she looked like she was pregnant, but because of the mutilation, she couldn't be sure. Startled she peered around looking for another corpse, maybe that of a baby, to no avail. If whoever this woman was, was indeed pregnant, the baby was gone, dead or alive she could not know.

Unsure of what to do she went to the mantle, where a single book lay. A bible, and curiously, she looked to see what names appeared there to put a name to a face.

* * *

_Bestowed upon the union of Gregory and Adelaide Hamilton, by Father Tatum_

_Adelaide (Channing) Hamilton b. March 16th 922 AD_

_m.Gregory Hamilton July 21st 941 AD_

_d._

_Gregory Hamilton b. April 2nd 917 AD_

_m1. Natasha Bynes September 7th 938 AD (August 5th 939 AD)_

_m2. Adelaide Channing July 21st 941 AD_

_d. May 19th 947_

_Cassandra (Hamilton) Stykes b. August 4th 939 AD_

_m. Thomas Stykes June 8th 959 AD (January 17th 961 AD)_

_d._

_Gwyneth (Hamilton)b. July 30th 944 AD._

_m._

_d._

* * *

'I wonder who she is?' wondered Hermione, 'And for that matter, who the bloody hell am I?' Frustrated at her lack of knowledge and current situation, she hurled the book at the wall. 'What am I going to do with this body?' Her wand was no where to be found, and the cold was starting to numb her arms, having woken up with numb fingers.

"Gwen?" a shocked voice said from the door. There stood a woman with dirty blonde hair, brown eyes and age lines evident on her face. "What hast occured?"

"What?" said a confused Hermione, if she was 'Gwen' then the body must be 'Cassandra'? This could be very very bad, particularily if this woman thought she had commited the act.

"Thy sister? What hast occured! Gwenyth, hast the crow plucked out thy tongue? Speak girl!" Called this woman, striding forward and shaking her almost a little too violently. Her aching head began to throb and she slumped to the ground and vomited. The woman had released her because she had caught sight of the body. With a cry she flung herself down beside it and began cradling it, "Cassie, speak girl, mama's here! Open thy eyes!"


End file.
